Israeli Doctors Treat Boston Wounded, Including Bomber

Israel-trained doctors are playing a prominent role in treating the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing, including the surviving bombing suspect, Ynet reported on Sunday.

Professor Kevin (Ilan) Tabb is the director of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where 24 people wounded in the attack, along with suspected terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are being treated. Sixteen of the victims are listed in serious condition.

“Unfortunately, I have had a lot of experience with these types of injuries after years of treating people injured in terror attacks in Israel,” said the professor, who is a member of the board of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Yerushalayim, where he studied medicine and completed his residency.

“We have a few Israeli doctors in the emergency room, and the director of the ER is also Israeli. But most of the physicians at the hospital are not Israeli, and they functioned exceptionally well,” Tabb noted.

“It was very similar to what I was used to in Israel in that we had to admit many injured people in a short period of time,” he said.

“The fact that we are treating both the victims and the suspected terrorist also reminds me of similar situations in Israel. In Israel, we had an injured soldier and a terrorist lying on adjacent beds. When an injured person is admitted to the ER, the doctor or nurse treats him without asking questions.”

Regarding the suspected terrorist, Tabb said Tsarnaev was in stable condition. But if he survives, the throat wounds he sustained may prevent him from ever being able to speak again.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the April 22nd, 2013 edition of Hamodia.